The invention relates to a furniture hinge for hanging a door on a cabinet carcase whose door-front face is narrowed by a frame projecting at right angles from the side walls and formed by stick-like frame members, which is overlapped at least partially by the inner side of the door in the closed state, and bears a fastening plate placeable on the free edge of a frame member facing away from the side wall, which has a width corresponding substantially to the width of the edge of the frame member and bears the actual arm section coupled by a joint mechanism to the hinge member attached to the door and is provided with a longitudinal slot running in the lengthwise direction of the edge of the frame member, whose width is substantially equal to the diameter of the shaft of the mounting screw, while on the rearward margin of the fastening plate pointing into the cabinet interior at least one tab is fashioned, which is bent substantially at right angles against the cabinet-interior flat side of the frame member.
Hinges which are intended for such cabinets with an inwardly reaching frame are, as a rule, mounted at their carcase-related end by means of a fastening plate which can be screwed to the free edge, facing away from the side wall, of the inwardly reaching frame member, while the fastening plate, of a width approximately equal to the width of the edge of the frame member, can be part of a mounting plate on which the actual hinge supporting arm forming the carcase-related part of the hinge is adjustably fastened, or the fastening plate can also be an integral part of the hinge arm itself. To be able to adjust vertically the door hung on the cabinet carcase, the openings provided in the fastening plate for the fastening screws are as a rule configured as at least one longitudinal slot, so that, with the fastening screw loosened, a vertical displacement of the door within the given length of the longitudinal slot is possible. By tightening the fastening screw the fastening plate is then fixed in the new established vertical position of the door.
The exact fixation of the fastening plate with respect to the horizontal setting of the door on the cabinet carcase is as a rule assured by the fact that tabs bent at right angles are provided on the front margin of the fastening plate, which during installation are pushed into contact with the front side of the frame member and thus determine the position of the fastening plate and hence of the hinge arm in the horizontal direction with respect to the cabinet carcase. The hanging of doors on the carcase is performed, at least in large series production, by means of hinges preinstalled on the doors by bringing the doors with the hinge arm hanging downward in the open position against the carcase lying on its back so that the fastening plates of the hinge arm come into contact with the free face of the associated frame member, then driving the fastening screws through the longitudinal slots in the fastening plates into the frame member. For this purpose as a rule two persons are necessary, one of which holds the door and aligns it relative to the carcase, while the second person drives the fastening screw at least to the extent that the door is held in a preliminary manner on the carcase.
To enable the door to be installed by a single person, it has been proposed in the inventor's co-pending application Ser. No. 08/022,064, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,616, filed Feb. 24, 1993, to create on the front and rear margin of the fastening plate at least one tab bent substantially at right angles against the inside and outside faces of the frame member, the inner tab or tabs being provided with a projection that is sharp-pointed or knife-edged pointing toward the inside face of the frame member. For the preinstallation of the fastening plate to the frame member of the cabinet carcase, the procedure can be such that the fastening plate is placed on the frame member at such an angle that the tabs inside the cabinet will catch behind the surface on the interior flat side of the frame member, while the front frame members lie on the face of the frame member virtually in the marginal area. Then a pressure is exerted on the hinge arm through the door standing in the open position of the hinge and the door-related hinge part, which passes the front tabs over the front arris of the edge of the frame member and swings the fastening plate against the edge of the frame member. At the same time the sharp-pointed or sharpened projections on the cabinet-interior tabs dig into the inside face of the frame member, thereby obtaining a positive holding of the fastening plate on the frame member, even if no fastening screw has as yet been driven through the longitudinal slot into the frame member. I.e., in this embodiment the door can be pre-installed without the need for a second person to drive in the fastening screw. This driving of the screw does not take place until an additional procedure is performed, i.e., it can be done by the same person who pre-installed the door, or, in the case of production line work, in a subsequent work station. The pressing of the front tab of the fastening plate over the front arris of the edge of the frame member in pre-installation does not, however, make it impossible for the front arris to be damaged. As long as the hinge does not have to be adjusted up or down such damage does no harm because the front tabs cover the damaged parts of the arris. In the event of adjustment of the height of the door, however, the damaged areas can become visible, and this is undesirable.
Like the hinge described above the invention is addressed to the problem of permitting the pre-installation of the door on the frame member of the cabinet carcass by a single person without the danger that the door might drop and possibly damaging the frame member, especially in the area of the front face of the frame member which is visible when the door is open, while the vertical adjustment of the fastening plate on the cabinet is to be still possible when the fastening screw is loosened and with it the door.